On a system that was well known for its wide variety of shooters, it's no surprise that yet another one is popping up on the Virtual Console. It doesn't help this shooter's cause that it's following the release of one of the greatest shooters ever made in Lords of Thunder. While Psychosis is a nice enough shooter, it's not anywhere close to the same league of Lords of Thunder, or any of the other top-shelf shooters found on the TurboGrafx-16 console for that matter. It tries to emulate many of the ideas found in R-Type, but it's just never able to come up with the type of intensity or originality that R-Type offered up. Fans of the genre who can keep their expectations at a reasonable level might want to at least give it a look, as it does offer up moderately fun game play mechanics and some interesting boss fights along the way.

In Psychosis you take control of a ship and you must pilot through your subconscious in order to battle the mental illness that's being inflicted upon you by an evil demon. You'll have to blast your way through 5 levels, or causes as they're called in the game, and you'll face off with a boss at the end of each level. It's pretty standard stuff and doesn't stray very far from the usual layouts used in most shooters of this time period.

The game play in Psychosis is obviously heavily inspired by the legendary shooter R-Type. You can pick up a powerup that will give you the use of two "satellites" which closely resemble the pods from R-Type. You can move these pods around in different locations around your ship by pressing the "2" button. Each time you press the button the pods will move around into a different location. These can be quite helpful in blocking off enemy fire, although the more powerful lasers will still penetrate them. You can also pick up various powerups that will give you more powerful cannon fire that will come in quite handy once you reach the boss at the end of each level. Play control is very responsive in this game, but there's just not enough variety in the way this control system is implemented, and it makes the game feel very bland and uninspired most of the time. The bosses are fairly small and are certainly not anything special and make playing through the often-difficult levels feel very unrewarding for the most part. If you've ever played a shooter, you'll know what to expect from Psychosis as it sticks to the standard shooter formula and just doesn't offer up anything new to the mix to give the game any type of edge or feeling of originality.

For a Hucard release, the visuals in Psychosis are actually pretty solid. The parallax scrolling adds nice depth to the backdrops, and even the enemies themselves show a good amount of detail and animation. The game uses vibrant colors in heavy doses to give the game a very vivid look and there's certainly no shortage of scenery to look at in each level. It's a shame that the same attention to detail wasn't used when it came time to put the bosses together, as they're quite small and don't show off much in the way of creativity. In fact, they're pretty mediocre for the most part. Psychosis obviously has its moments, but they're few and far between and the lackluster bosses at the end of each level make playing the game feel futile and pointless for the most part.

The strange music found throughout the game is very easy to describe. If you took the soundtracks from Alien Crush and Splatterhouse and mixed them together, the result would be exactly like the music found in Psychosis. It's strange and it can get very annoying if you somehow manage to stick with this shooter for more than a few minutes at a time. Even the sound effects have this annoying tendency that's difficult to describe. Maybe it's just a carry-over from the soundtrack, but either way it makes for a very grating listening experience overall.

Psychosis isn't necessarily a bad shooter, it's just not up to par with many of the other great shooters found on the TurboGrafx-16 system and those that have already seen a release on the Virtual Console. If you just absolutely love playing shooters, then give the game a try. Who knows, it might appeal to you. For everyone else, stick with Lords of Thunder or Gate of Thunder until something better comes along. Even R-Type fans are not likely going to take to what is basically just another mediocre clone.